Sunday Stash - Tokyo Part One

It has been two weeks since I returned from my trip of a lifetime to Tokyo.  I had many a plan to blog about my trip earlier than this, however, it took me a week to actually recover from my holiday!!  It was literally exhausting - but incredibly exhilarating!  The one question everyone asks me when I tell them I went by myself on a holiday to Tokyo is "Why?"  Well, I am lucky enough to have a handful of amazing friends I have known since grade one.  And one of those friends has lived in Tokyo for around 17 years.  You will know her as my Tokyo BFF.  Last year, my husband wanted to buy a new TV.  I panned this idea and suggested that when we got our tax returns in 2014, he could get a new TV and I would go to Tokyo..... All in jest..... Fast forward to earlier this year, and we both changed employment and got generous payouts.  He bought his TV.....and much to my surprise, I went ahead and booked tickets to Tokyo!  It was one of those pipe dreams that I never thought would be a reality.

Soooooo, this post is a little entree to my fabric shopping during my nine days in one of the most amazing cities I have ever visited.  I arrived very early Friday morning and literally hit the ground running!  From the time I was greeted at the Tokyo bus station, I did. not. stop.  I spent the first few nights sitting on the lounge nodding off, doing that hilarious head roll whilst trying to stay awake!  It was a long weekend in the city, so I was fortunate to be able to see a bit of everything!  Friday we spent the day wondering around the Tokyo Dome area - where I woke up when I stepped on to this monster....

We then did what I'm sure was completely normal, and headed to the HUGE day spa at L'aqua.  Cue the hilarity of me finding out I would be spending the next couple of hours naked and surrounded by complete strangers - all naked too.  And then being told I had to leave because I had body art....too funny!  It was certainly a great introduction to Japan.....

Saturday morning was my God-daughter's sports day at their kindy, followed by an afternoon and evening walking all around Tokyo - taking in Ginza (OHEMGEE) and the Imperial Palace.....

Seeing parts of a city that are hundreds and thousands of years old is mind blowing.

Sunday we travelled a couple of hours out of the city to Hakone.  A pirate ship took us to a port where we hopped on cable cars that travelled WAYYYYY up the mountains to some amazing geo-thermal sites.

The sulphur steam spewing from the ground smelt awful, and when we went for a big walk up one of the hills to see everyone eating the black eggs the area is famous for, I spent some considerable time gagging!  No black eggs for me, but I was most interested in the decent rumbling under foot.....

Monday.  Now known as the day I first spotted fabric in Japan.  We headed to a couple of local shopping centres.  At AENO, we wandered around getting bits and pieces for my friend's children.  She then casually mentions there's a fabric store up the other end, called "Pandora House".  I hot-footed it over there and was greeted by this.....

Little pre-cuts of Yuwa and other Japanese prints.

And a rack of Enchino.  So freaking good!  I also found some beautiful cotton/linen blends solids.  Lovely start......

We then drove over to Lalaport in Toyosu.  Found the most amazing stationary store EVER and then was led to a fabric store that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of!

It was FULL of amazing fabrics - all the popular Japanese designers as well as a fabulous range of Liberty.  I actually made my first ever Liberty purchase here.  And for around $30 a metre, it was completely justifiable.

So Monday was a great day :)  Skip forward to Wednesday.......

And I had my trip planned out.  Simple really?  Just had to navigate the Tokyo subway system all by myself.  Ahemmm.......

I set off in the morning, tugalong case on hand.  A 15 minute stroll to Tokyo Central Station, a minor panic attack through a million travellers, and I eventually got myself to Nippori.....

Nippori Textile Town (a whole freakin town!!) is what I would call Heaven.  It's only around 15 minutes from Tokyo central and is a rather quiet little hub FULL of different fabric and notions stores.  Before my guide arrived, I sat in a lovely little coffee shop and read the Woman's Weekly I had brought her with a hot chocolate to boot!

Then my guide arrived!  The delightful Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts has been an online friend of mine for quite some time now, so it was very exciting to finally meet in the flesh!  This is a shocker of a photo, but I love it, because it was before the rush of fabric hit me in the face!

We headed down the road to a humble little store called Tomato.  And by humble, I mean frigging HUGE!  Over five floors of different fabric, the ground floor was more than accommodating.  Straight in the door and we find multiple racks of old school Melody Miller.

 

And on the quilting cotton floor - jackpot!  Rack upon rack of Japanese designer fabrics as well as walls FULL of American quilting cottons.  I very happily took advantage of the hour we spent on that one floor alone...... It was like quilt candy every direction you looked!  It was with great self control that I managed to not buy one of everything.....

And thankfully the thoughtful staff had reminders around the store in regards to their cutting practices......  I'm still trying to figure out whether I am separately competent.......

I don't think I need to tell you I had a brilliant day?  We cleared Tomato, had a reallllly yummy lunch and talked and talked, then headed to a couple of amazing smaller stores.  And with my tugalong jam packed and overflowing with fabric, got on the train and headed for home.

To be continued........

ps.  I'd normally be linking up with Glamour-puss Molli, but the glitter is on the shelf at present.  Go send Molli some love!

Bright Sky QAL - Ms Nightshade

A few months ago, Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts asked me if I would be interested in joining her Bright Sky Quilt Along?  Sure, I said.  No problem, I said.  And really, it wasn't a problem - I just got my skates on and got the quilt top made incredibly fast! Seriously, this is a super quick pattern to put together! But I then had to leave it languish in my pile of WIP's, because, Tokyo.

Anyway - today is my stop on the quilt along!  So I'm going to show you my version of the Bright Sky pattern.  And it's a colour palette I never really envisioned EVER using!

This, my friends, is Ms Nightshade.

 

Isn't she beautiful?  I was lucky enough to score a big bundle of Nightshade fat quarters from Quilt Jane earlier this year.  I know two females in my life who would die over these prints, I just had to wait for the right pattern to use them in.  And given Bright Sky's big scale pattern, I brought Nightshade out to play.  It took a lot of umming and ahhing to convince myself it was going to work!  I mean - olive, pink and black?  And CREAM?!?!!?  I ordered the solids from The Oz Material Girls (their quilting solids really are beautiful to work with!) and was pleased when they arrived and actually co-ordinated well with the prints.

The next step was to make the cameo of this gothic princess work.  Let me tell you - fat quarters and huge scale prints are not ideal!  It almost killed me not using a complete cameo, but I basically had to fussy cut this baby so that it was pretty much centred.  My fat quarter had the top of the cameo cut off - hence why the bottom is too!  The great thing about this pattern however, is that the centre block just had to be 18" square.  Which essentially means you can make that square up however you please.  You would have seen Alyce's latest version, which she made in to a star, well this one is just a frame around the cameo.  Winning.

 

I was VERY impressed with my points on the inner star!  It was relatively easy to put together in terms of the bias I was working with, but I was a tad worried during the process!

What I WASN'T impressed with, was how my outer star points ended up!  Completely my fault, and I am dreading having to unpick to fix the problem.  BUT, I can't really not have star points!  I'm thinking the reason behind this minor issue was that the outer star rectangular blocks were a little bigger than they should have been, so I SHOULD have trimmed them down a little before piecing it all together.  Doh. So that is my next step.

Now, a little dilemma I'm having is BACKING.  I searched high and low whilst in Tokyo for the perfect backing fabric - to no avail.  I even had lovely Alyce's help, but nothing.  If you head over to Blossom Heart Quilts today, she is having a little old giveaway - and all you have to do is suggest what fabric I should use for my backing.  I look forward to getting some options!

And just for laughs......here's an out-take from the photo shoot yesterday......

Was a tad bit windy....

I hope you like my version of the Bright Sky pattern!  You can find the pattern HERE and the full schedule of quilt-alongers is here:

Monday 29th September – Choosing Fabrics Tips

Week 1: Centre Star
Monday 6th October – Have Fun With Your Centre Star!
Wednesday 8th October – Echo by Molli Sparkles

Week 2: Piece Outer Star
Monday 13th October – Outer Star Tips
Wednesday 15th October – My Fabric Relish

Week 3: Piece Quilt Top + Backing
Monday 20th October – BHQ
Wednesday 22nd October – Ms Midge

Week 4: Quilting
Monday 27th October – Pretty Bobbins free motion quilting guest post here at BHQ
Wednesday 29th October – A Stitch In Between (Bright Sky mini)

Week 5: Quilting
Monday 3rd November – Elven Garden Quilts free motion quilting guest post here at BHQ

Week 6: Final Linky
Monday 10th November – Linky opens here at BHQ for a week

Voting:
Monday 17th November – Linky closes and voting opens for Viewers’ Choice award
Friday 21st November – Winners announced!

I'm also linking up with Freshly Pieced!

Fairytales Continued....

Last week, I shared with you the beginnings of a new project.  I kept plugging away at it, and have now finished all the blocks required!

 

Sleeping Beauty - She was super tricky!!  Pattern by Quiet Play.

 

Cinderella in her pauper days...... She looks like she could be the Grim Reaper's long lost cousin, but it really is a mop!  Oh, and I messed up with her hairline.....Just one teeny tiny little piece!  Pattern by Quiet Play.

 

And last, but most certainly not least - the fairytale castle!  This pattern was designed by Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts.  It is HUGE!!!!!  24.5" x 18.5" to be exact.  I absolutely LOVE it!

 

Lots of fussy cut Princesses.

 

I had a lot of fun pulling out of hair choosing fabrics for this block, but am completely wrapt with the end result!

So much so, that today has seen me putting this baby together!  And I've actually taken a break from quilting it, to write this blog post!

All will be revealed next week!  So be here or be somewhere else miss out check back in at some stage and you will see it!

I'm linking up with Paper Piecing Party - You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. - No seriously - Thank God This Week is Over!

Things have been awfully quiet here in my home this week.  My sewing machine has been sitting dormant, there have been no loose threads attacking everyone's clothing and nobody has stepped on a pin.  You see, I spent the first few days of the week either sitting in our local Emergency Department, or in a hospital ward wondering what on earth was going on with my insides!  To cut a long story short - I had a pretty impressive pain in my abdomen from last Friday, and when I finally went to the GP on Monday afternoon, she sent me off to see if it was appendicitis.  Hmmmm.......  Ultimately, after spending one night in the ED and another night on the ward - it turns out they really couldn't figure it out, and didn't want to go exploring.  Which suited me just fine!  We shall now refer to those couple of days as "forced rest".  On the plus side - I started The Hunger Games series of books, and had plenty of time to read!

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, and I really needed to sew.  Nothing too big, just something to keep my hands busy.  So I got on to this month's Wombat Stew Bee Blocks.

The lovely Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts designed her own Kimono paper pieced blocks, and asked us to choose either the front or back.  I chose the front......

It came together sooooo quickly and was a wonderfully easy pattern to follow!  So...... I decided I'd also make a back.....

Another very quick pattern to whip up!

And that my friends, is all I sewed this week!  Well, I did just finish a dress tonight, but will save that for another day!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted by Sewing By Moonlight

AND

Paper Piecing Party at Quietplay

T.G.I.F.F. - June Bee Blocks

I've had a reasonably productive week - especially considering I had my four year old niece on Tuesday and spent only half days home yesterday and today!  Winning!  I decided I would get on to the June Bee Blocks - seeing as though there's only a couple of days left in the month.....

This is the block I chose for my month as Queen in the paper piecing bee I am a part of.  When I saw Quilt Jane had made this block in to a quilt, I was in love.  And then spent many weeks thinking how I could "make the block mine"?  With a bit of brain storming with The Wombat Stew girls, and some printing out of patterns, sticky taping and colouring in - I was able to interpret how I would like the blocks to be made.  And I'm pretty darn happy!  Three of the girls have finished their blocks, and they are going to look UH-mazing!  I still am undecided what I will be making from the blocks, but watch this space....

Yesterday I finally tackled Lisa's Herringbone block from the QCA Bee #5.  I'd read the tutorial a million times and really could not make much sense of it!  So bit the bullet and got down to the task at hand.  And was still muddled.  After much turning of rulers and double checking I was doing things correctly, I figured it out.  And I must say, these blocks are striking!

I know I showed you this finish on Tuesday, but I couldn't help myself from sharing again today!  Isn't she sweet?

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F, being hosted by the lovely Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts  AND Kristy's Paper Piecing Party over at Quiet Play -  You can too!

Who knew? Not me....

So I've been reading hysteria filled posts for months about the fact that Google Reader is closing down. As I read them, I thought "Hmmm, never heard of it" and wondered for a few seconds each time how I read my blog posts and why it wasn't on Google Reader??

Fast forward to a few days ago, when a lovely reader commented that they couldn't find my Bloglovin' follow button thingy, but added me anyway.  And press that fast forward button again to tonight when I finally mentioned said comment to my friend Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts.  She suggested that I should add the button for all the new Bloglovin' fashionistas, and to use her tutorial.  So I did.

And who knew?  Well, clearly not me - apparently all these years I HAVE been using Google Reader - in a round about fashion!  Yep, technologically challenged me figured out by signing up to Bloglovin' that when you follow all your blogs through your Blogger Dashboard, it does in fact link up with Google Reader.  Derrrrrrr.......  And I only found this out when I decided to give the "Import Blogs" button a crack.  And 334 blogs a following imported for me.  Ummmmm......

So here you have it friends - 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm working on adding the goddamn button!

xxxx

Kate Spain Blog Hop - Stopping Here Today!

Last week, I wrote about my love for Kate Spain in THIS POST, today I'm showing you my latest project using a gorgeous little FQ bundle of Cuzco!  I finished this a couple of weeks ago, so it has been very difficult for me to keep it to myself, waiting for my turn on the Kate Spain Blog Hop!  I hope you've been keeping up with the hop over at Blossom Heart Quilts?  You can find all the dates HERE.

So - what did I make?  Well, I bought myself a whizz bang new camera a few weeks ago, and at the same time, bought a generic black camera bag from the same store.  And kept the tags on.  Because I really didn't like it.  And I really didn't want to pay a million dollars $150 for the only store bought camera bag I saw and thought was ok.  So then began a Pinterest search to rival no other!  I was determined to make my own goddamn camera bag!

Many days of searching and second guessing myself later, I found the Sew Sweetness Paparazzi camera bag pattern.  And it was $8 well spent!  I made a trip to my local Clark Rubber store and bought some foam for the padding and then took to my beloved Cuzco with gusto!

And this my friends, is the end result........

I love, love, love it!  I mixed the Cuzco with some lightweight denim I had in my shelves, and added some quilting to the handles and trim, as well as the side/bottom panel.

I found a gorgeous blue zipper to pop in the back and surprised myself with a new way of inserting a zip!

The side panels of the bag have one inch foam padding, and then there are removable foam padding inserts in the base of the bag and also to put between your camera and accessories.  The pattern calls for rows of velcro to be sewn on the inside of the bag, and also on the edges of the padding.  However - after sewing one row on, I decided against the velcro.  I'm still trying to work out how to make the padding work for me!

The pattern also gives you directions for using hidden magnetic closures, but I chose to use my good old handy snap machine with some co-ordinating blue snaps.  

And just to make sure it was a great functional bag - this beauty has just travelled all the way to Fiji and back!  Not only did it carry my camera and accessories - it also served as my handbag/travel bag!  So I think I can safely say it's great!

What I love most about this bag is the bright and bold colours.  I loved that each time I opened it up to get something out, I was greeted with those vibrant oranges and pinks.  Needless to say, the generic black camera bag was returned for a refund, and no million dollars spent.  Instead I have this one of a kind, unique bag which cost me around $35 to make!  Winner!

Thanks again to Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts for running this amazing Blog Hop!  I'm loving visiting all the blogs involved and drooling over all the fabulous Kate Spain inspired projects!  Be sure to link up any new projects you have made this month using Kate Spain fabric lines on the 28th of June.  I know I will be!

A Kate Spain Homage!

Today is the day of the Kate Spain Blog Hop - over at Blossom Heart Quilts - where everyone can link up their favourite kate Spain projects!  I have sat here looking through photos and really just could not choose one favourite......so here is my homage of sorts to my love for Kate's fabrics, and how it sort of began......

When I started out sewing little one's clothing for my Ms Midge business, I soon realised there was a whole world of fabric out there that I just had no clue about.  It's probably a realisation that my husband wishes I had not found, however, it has lead me to the hobby he always said I needed (he may regret saying I needed a hobby too).

Anyway, I think the third delivery of fabric from overseas was the entire collection of Terrain.  From that I made a multitude of little outfits, and not long in to it was asked to provide some photos to an online magazine called "Tiny & Little".  I was absolutely freakin thrilled!! So I called on my friend Gina from Gina Ralli Photography, who very kindly popped over and took some amazing pictures for me.  THIS is where my Kate Spain love came to life.....

I continued on my merry way, making clothing, not realising that a year or two later, I would be completely obsessed and somewhat addicted to quilting.  Thankfully, I chose to bag up all the "scraps" of Terrain and put them aside.  When the quilting bug bit, I found out that you should NEVER throw out scraps, because one woman's scraps is another woman's - or man's - treasure!

            So earlier this year, this bag of scrappage was cracked open for a number of projects.......

The first being this paper pieced cushion for my teenage god-daughter.  I LOVE the way the Terrain bounces off the black background!  She loves it too.  You can see my post about it HERE.

Next cab off the rank was this paper pieced cushion, which now belongs to my Mum.  I was so glad that I had about a yard or so of the green print amongst my scraps - it's gone a long way!  You can see my post about it HERE.

Terrain has also been used in some of my bee blocks for others, as well as the block I popped in my own month of being Queen Bee!  It's like the fabric that just keeps giving!  I have plans for the rest of my stash.....

When I went searching for fabric for my purple loving four year old, I fell in love with Good Fortune!  The colours are sublime, and whilst you wouldn't think some of the colours would naturally go together, they do!  You can read my post about this quilt HERE.

And finally - I have just finished making my project for this Blog Hop just last week!  I've used this gorgeous little bundle of Cuzco.  I'm not showing you the finished project - for obvious reasons!  You will have to come back here to my blog on the 19th of June - when it's my turn as host for the Hop!

Make sure you have all the dates for the blog hop in your calendar - you don't want to miss out!

I'm linking up with the Kate Spain Blog Hop - you can too!